Perhaps lost in the Wisconsin shuffle is the story of what exactly is happening in Michigan. Newly elected Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is set to pass one of the most sweeping, anti-democratic pieces of legislation in the country – and almost no one is talking about it.

Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that.

Except it does. The governor simply has to declare a financial emergency to invoke these powers – or he can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city. That’s right, a private corporation can declare your city in a state of financial emergency and send in its Emergency Manager, fire your elected officials, and reap the benefits of the ensuing state contracts.

I am reminded of a line by Lily Tomlin in the play The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe...

No matter how cynical I get, I'm afraid its never enough to keep up.

What I'm feeling these days is that no matter how hard I try, I can't keep up with the crazed antics of the GOP these days. It is truly disturbing.

5 comments:

There is no getting around it. One has to admit that dominance (bullying IMO) is the teaching model used to educate Republican politicians, and they are great students of this lesson! Bully, push, shout, overpower, bluster and work as a gang and you'll get what you want. The other side has no feelings, no points worth considering. The Republicans demonstrate excellent gang mentality!

I watched the Rachel Maddow segments on Michigan last week, in which she made mention of the fact that the MSM seems unaware/is ignoring this imminent catastrophic attack on American democracy. A part of me didn't want to believe that actions like Snyder's could progress so far unchallenged in the U S of A, while another part wondered if he would get away with it. Of what purpose is the MSM when it does not recognize the newsworthiness of actions like Snyder's and the actions of concerned citizens like those in Wisconsin, as they impact democracy? If only an effective way around the MSM could be created that would immediately impact their bottom line and shake them into practising real, factual and analytic journalism. I'm currently not very optimistic on this issue.

I'm really curious how this story is playing in Michigan. I haven't had time to dig into any of the local media there - but it sure would be interesting to see if the folks in the state are going to ignore this or take it sitting down.

Apparently they had a rally in Michigan today, but I'm not good at ferreting our info. This site had a brief report on the rally size and mentioned that it will be a 2-day rally.

"Update! ... Just returned from the AARP rally. I hate to estimate crowd sizes, but I'd put attendance as a tight bunch that took up most of the front lawn of the capital. When I left, afterwards, there was a much smaller group of college-aged looking kids who'd taken up the front steps." http://www.michiganliberal.com/diary/17648/see-you-in-lansing

That article gives me the impression that they are trying to get things off the ground, but that it hasn't quite picked up yet. Wonder if that Michael Moore bus offer isn't too late for tomorrow? Anyways, I wish them success in tamping down on this republican overreach.